A. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an X-ray computer tomography (CT) apparatus and an X-ray detection apparatus thereof, and more particularly, to a high-resolution X-ray apparatus and a high-resolution X-ray detecting apparatus including a plurality of X-ray detection packs that are detachably arranged in an X-ray scanning direction.
B. Background of the Invention
An X-ray CT apparatus reconstructs tomography images based on projection data acquired from various directions by scanning around an object. Usually, an X-ray tube and a detection unit are supported on a rotation frame in a gantry of an X-ray CT apparatus. The X-ray tube and the detection unit are positioned so as to face each other. In the rotation frame, a high voltage generating apparatus is also supported for supplying a high voltage to the X-ray tube.
The X-rays emitted from the X-ray tube and penetrated through the object are detected by the X-ray detection unit. The X-ray detection unit includes multiple X-ray detection elements arranged in a circular arc-shape so as to face the X-ray tube. It is impossible to construct such a circular arc-shaped detection unit in an integrated architecture. Accordingly, it has conventionally been proposed to construct the X-ray detection unit by dividing the multiple X-ray detection elements into a plurality of detection packs arranged in a rotation direction (channel direction) of the rotation frame in the gantry (For instance, see Japanese Patent Application Publication 2005-283441).
In each of the plurality of detection packs, a plurality of detecting elements are arranged in the channel direction at a prescribed channel pitch. To remove a detection pack for maintenance, a gap has conventionally been provided between each of two detection packs in the X-ray detection unit. The gap is sufficiently smaller than a channel pitch of each detecting element in each detection pack. Since the gap provided between the two detection packs arranged next to each other has conventionally been made sufficiently smaller than the channel pitch of each detecting element, acquisition of projection data has not been a problem.
However, recently, a high-resolution detection pack has been developed by providing a plurality of high-resolution detecting elements for increasing resolution of the X-ray CT image by reducing the channel pitch of the conventional detecting element in each of the detection packs. In such a high-resolution detection pack, the channel pitch of each detecting element has become much narrower than in the conventional detection pack. Consequently, the conventional gap provided between two detection packs has relatively increased compared to the channel pitch of each high-resolution detecting element. For instance, each of the conventional gaps provided between two detection packs becomes almost equal to the channel pitch of the high-resolution detecting element. As a result, X-ray penetrated through an object cannot be detected at positions corresponding to the gaps provided between each of two detection packs. Thus, the projection data acquired from the high-resolution detection pack is missing a data channel corresponding to each of the gaps between the multi-slice detecting elements, which creates a serious problem in reduced resolution of the acquired image data.